Is The Invisibility Cloak Possible?

Could Invisibility Cloaks Be Coming Soon?

Let’s face it. If you were given the chance to get one superpower, you might say you’d choose flight, invulnerability or an uncontrollable laser beam that shoots out of your eyes, but in reality you might just pick invisibility. Robbing banks with ease! Finding out what people really think of you! Haunting your friends and neighborus! Being invisible is the gift that would keep on giving.

Don’t fret. Mankind’s desire to become invisible is nothing new. In other words, Harry Potter wasn’t the first fictional character to don an invisibility cloak to get up to mischief. Clothing that bestows invisibility on the wearer goes all the way back to the Greek myths, to the God Hades and his invisibility cap. This cap, sometimes referred to as a helmet, was used by Athena to go unnoticed during the Trojan War, Perseus to escape Medusa’s minions and Hermes to slay a giant. (It also happens to be one of the rare items that was never used by Zeus to improperly impregnate women or turn hapless dudes into goats. That Zeus really is a piece of work.)

But is this power really within the realm of scientific possibility? The short answer is yes. OK then. So, when is it coming? After all, being invisible isn’t much help when it’s 2050 and we are all too old to get ourselves off the sofa. Well, that depends on who you ask. Recent years have seen a flurry of activity on the invisibility-cloak front, much of which is still ongoing. Here are some of the best and brightest ideas.